Tenure Brought Social Change Women, Minorities Made Major Gains

WASHINGTON -- When historians look at the life and writings of Chief Justice Warren Burger, they probably will view him in sharp contrast to the liberal Earl Warren who preceded him.

But when historians study his tenure, they will find that one man does not a court make. Despite the conservative image it has today, the Burger court has been middle-of-the-road, preserving the struggle for racial equality, championing the right of the public to attend criminal trials and giving women rights they never had before.

It was the Warren court in 1961 that said it was constitutional to exclude women from jury service because they were ``the center of home and family life.``

The first decisions upholding equal rights for women came out of the Burger court beginning in 1971 and the most controversial of them all -- the 1973 ruling legalizing abortion -- was issued on a 7-2 vote with Burger in the majority.

The Burger court has made it easier for women to get access to traditionally male jobs and has said that a woman has a statutory right to sue her law firm for denying her a partnership because she was a female.

On the issue of race discrimination, the Burger court has moved in a conservative direction, but has generally allowed affirmative action if there is evidence of intentional discrimination.

The first, and perhaps best known ruling, was the Bakke case, where the court narrowly invalidated a medical school`s action in setting aside a specific number of seats for minorities, but also said race could be taken into account in remedying past discrimination.

When schools instead of jobs were at issue, the court`s pattern was mixed. The court has held that northern cities, like Dayton and Columbus, are subject to the same school desegregation remedies as southern cities. But, in a 1974 ruling involving Detroit, the court struck down busing across district lines because there was no evidence the district outside the city had discriminated.

On the First Amendment, the Burger court has again developed a mixed record.

The court deserves credit for a series of landmark rulings beginning in 1980 that said the public and the press have a constitutionally based right to attend trials.

In the 1971 decision involving the Pentagon Papers, the court forbade the federal government from blocking the printing of confidential Defense Department documents about the Vietnam War by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

In Nebraska Press Association vs. Stuart, the Burger court overturned a trial court`s order barring coverage of a criminal trial because the court`s conclusion that publicity would hurt the defendant was ``speculative.``

And in a case involving campaign finance, the court in 1976 struck down major parts of Congress` comprehensive reform plan aimed at reducing the influence of money in political campaigns, finding that financial contributions to candidates and their causes are forms of expression protected by the First Amendment.

Its decisions in criminal law are probably what have given the Burger court its conservative name.

The court in 1982 extended warrantless searches of cars by ruling that when police properly stop an automobile, they may search not only the passenger compartment of the car, but also items found inside the car.

The court also has weakened the protections of the 1966 Miranda ruling that said suspects must be advised of their rights before police can question them.

Last term, the court said a policeman who obtains an illegal confession can try to secure the information again as long as he reads the suspect the Miranda warnings.

The court also has said that questioning of a suspect may be resumed several hours after it had begun without police having to re-read the Miranda rights and that grand jury testimony and tax investigations can be carried out without any Miranda warnings.

On the death penalty, the court again has followed a middle-of-the-road path, first striking down capital punishment laws in 1972 because they were arbitrary and capricious. The court reinstated the death penalty four years later after specifying ways to make it fairer and more uniform.

WARREN E. BURGER

Chief Justice of the United States

AGE: 78. Born in St. Paul, Minn., in 1907.

BACKGROUND: Burger went to the University of Minnesota and graduated from the former St. Paul College of Law, where he also taught between 1931 and 1953. During that time, he practiced general civil and criminal law. In 1953, President Eisenhower appointed Burger to be assistant attorney general in charge of the civil division of the Justice Department. Two years later, Burger accepted a position on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In an announcement that took many observers by surprise, President Nixon designated Burger as the successor to Earl Warren in 1969.

FAMILY: Burger married Elvera Stromberg in 1933, and they have two children.